Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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In
This Last Place, According To The Report Of The Indians, Great
Masses Of Sulphur Are Found, Not In A Gypseous Or Calcareous Rock,
But At A Small Depth Below The Soil, In A Bed Of Clay.
This
singular phenomenon appears to me peculiar to America; we found it
also in the kingdom of Quito, and in New Spain.
On approaching
Punzera, we saw in the savannahs small bags, formed of a silky
tissue suspended from the branches of the lowest trees. It is the
seda silvestre, or wild silk of the country, which has a beautiful
lustre, but is very rough to the touch. The phalaena which produces
it is probably analogous with that of the provinces of Gua[?]uato
and Antioquia, which also furnish wild silk. We found in the
beautiful forest of Punzera two trees known by the names of curucay
and canela; the former, of which we shall speak hereafter, yields a
resin very much sought after by the Piaches, or Indian sorcerers;
the leaves of the latter have the smell of the real cinnamon of
Ceylon.* (* Is this the Laurus cinnamomoides of Mutis? What is that
other cinnamon tree which the Indians call tuorco, common in the
mountains of Tocayo, and at the sources of the Rio Uchere, the bark
of which is mixed with chocolate? Father Caulin gives the name of
curucay to the Copaifera officinalis, which yields the Balsam of
Capivi. - Hist. Corograf., pages 24 and 34.) From Punzera the road
leads by Terecin and Nueva Palencia, (a new colony of Canarians,)
to the port of San Juan, situated on the right bank of the river
Areo; and it is only by crossing this river in a canoe, that the
traveller can arrive at the famous petroleum springs (or mineral
tar) of the Buen Pastor.
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